Maris Fessenden

 

Maris Fessenden is a freelance science writer and artist who appreciates small things and wide open spaces.

An ancient Hittite carving

Archaeologists Recreate 4,000-Year-Old Hittite Feast to Better Understand Their History

The chef crushed buckwheat on stones and used no kitchenware other than a knife

A robot serves a customer at a restaurant in northeast China in 2012

Dining in the Future: Predictions for Restaurant Eating in 2040

Eateries may include more tech and fewer humans on staff

Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada Just Hit a 500-Year Low

The last time California was this dry, European explorers hadn’t yet reached San Diego

Visit the Giant Galápagos Tortoises Using Google Street View

The 15-sided camera of the Street View Trekker followed migration routes for the giant reptiles

A leech found in Vietnam

These Scientists Survey Rainforest Diversity Using Leeches and the Blood They Suck

DNA from their host animals can persist in adult leeches for at least four months

A plate from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium

Meet the 17th Century Female Entomologist Who Illustrated Butterfly Life Cycles

Maria Sibylla Merian’s work fought superstition and societal norms

A mosaic of high-resolution images of Pluto shows the icy plane informally called Sputnik Planum.

Detailed Pluto Photos Reveal Dunes, Melted Plains and More

“If an artist had painted this Pluto before our flyby, I probably would have called it over the top — but that’s what is actually there.”

President Barack Obama visits finalists of the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search

Intel Drops Sponsorship of the Science Talent Search

The prestigious competition has been held every year since 1942

Argentine ants

Invasive Ants Could Be Beaten Back With a Targeted Virus

The idea is sound, but work needs to be done to ensure the virus doesn’t take out other insects as well

Liverpool, England Has a Mysterious Network of Tunnels

Historians know who built them, but they don’t know why

This Computer Can Track How Fashion Spreads From the Runway to the Street

Researchers created an algorithm to recognize and analyze fashion on the runway and in the street

Invasive Rabbits Change the Soil so Drastically you Can See the Effects Decades Later

Remote French islands in the Indian Ocean have a bunny problem

A juvenile crocodile in a Cape York peninsula river, the region where researchers recently looked for wild rice species

To Find New Rice Species, Scientists Head to Remote Tropical Swamps

A remote peninsula in northern Australia beckons a rice research expedition

A polar bear gnawing a caribou antler

Melting Ice Might not Spell Doom for Polar Bears

Snow geese, their eggs and caribou may offer enough calories for the polar bears to survive long ice-free seasons

The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse

People Have Always Been Obsessed with the End of the World

Since ancient times, art and fiction love to play in the fertile ground of the apocalypse, but it hasn't always been healthy

How Climate Change is Messing with Bees

New and ongoing research points to issues with bee ranges and the early emergence of flowers

A detail of "Lewis and Clark at Three Forks" by Edgar Samuel Paxson, mural in lobby of Montana House of Representatives

How to Reconstruct Lewis and Clark's Journey: Follow the Mercury-laden Latrine Pits

One campsite has been identified using the signatures left by men who took mercury-laced purgative pills to treat constipation and other ills

Here's What Our Future World Might Look Like

A warmer planet would favor fast-growing tropical trees and oceans full of algae but a lack of biodiversity

Is the Appalachian Trail Getting too Crowded?

Movies and books bring popularity to the long trails in the U.S. and concerns over the trails’ health

Ice patches that normally persist through the summer are melting in Yellowstone National Park.

Melting Ice in Yellowstone is Revealing Ancient Artifacts Faster Than Researchers Can Handle

The tools, spears and even baskets from ancient Native Americans are emerging faster than archeologists can collect them

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